Screens

Summary

The toys-to-life genre is a great idea. Take a real-life toy that you can use in your house, take to school, tread on and hurt your foot, and allow you to play with it inside a video game too. But as fast as the likes of Skylanders, Disney Infinity and LEGO Dimensions came, they all but disappeared again. Ubisoft has a couple of ideas as to why that happened and it's planning to address them both in its space combat game Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

First off, previous toys have been pretty static and other than stick them into your game there wasn't a huge amount to actually do with them. Well, in Starlink: Battle for Atlas the way you use the toys is to take component parts and build them into spaceships. Then, with no fussing around with bases and portals, you've got a spaceship inside the universe of Starlink: Battle for Atlas. This interactivity means you aren't just using a toy to insert a character into your game - you're literally building the vehicle you want to take down baddies with out in the real world!

The other problem, Ubisoft reckons, is that developers were underestimating their players. Kids these days have grown up living digital lives. They're sophisticated and capable in a way that often puts their parents to shame! So instead of building a simple platformer like you'd expect from a toys to life game, the studio has turned Ubisoft's expertise in open world gaming into a sprawling solar system that will have players dogfighting in space, flying into atmospheres and engaging in tank-like ground combat as they free the Atlas star system from the Forgotten Legion. Expect to be handling equipment menus, playing around with weapon stats and balancing ship loadouts based on the challenge you're facing. In short, it's a game that reflects the intelligence of its audience enough that it's going to be a fun challenge for kids and grown-ups alike. (But you can tell your guests the toys on the shelf below to your daughter or your nephew if you prefer. No-one will tell...)

As an added bonus for Nintendo fans, Switch owners can even access Star Fox content!

In short, Starlink: Battle for Atlas is the game where the toys-to-life genre comes of age.